Troublesome | Off Color Brewing

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Notes / Commercial Description:
Most brewers spend a lot of time and effort keeping lactobacillus out of their breweries; it was the first thing we brought in (it still has to stay in the corner though). We blend together two different beers to make Troublesome. The first is a somewhat uninteresting wheat beer and the second is an overly acidic & funky beer fermented solely with lactobacillus. We blend the two beers together with coriander and salt at the tail end of fermentation to create a mild, lemony tartness and a fuller sensation of mouthfeel. And yes, it's hard to make.

More User Reviews:

A twist on the Gose style as it’s a blend of two beers; a wheat beer and funkified, acidic beer with coriander and salt added during fermentation. The result? A pale, slightly hazy, yellow, thin laced beer with acidic suggestions in the nose, and funk and wheat in the background. Fizzy, prickly carbonation with a firm mouthfeel, a bit breadiness, touch of sweetness, tart, lemony bite, and lingering coriander and salt. A very thirst inducing and quenching experience, without the over-the-top acidic burn found in too many sours.

I can't deny that marketing affects me. When I saw the label on this beer I just had to try it. In addition to the artwork, the label also reads "SECRET INGREDIENTS: Coriander, Lactobacillus"...

It looks like a Berliner weiße or Belgian witbier with a light straw gold body that's gently hazy and a short but creamy bright white head. The smell is a touch off-putting at first. To me it smells like spent grain, and perhaps a little bit of that "old bar" smell where dripping draft lines have left small puddles of beer in some unseen area, covered in white mold. Beyond that there's coriander, and the combination gives a bit of a wet straw or damp plywood character. The flavor is much the same, with the flavor of the lactobacilus coming in right up front, followed by bright coriander, and then sweet malt that gently fades away. It's tart, but not overtly so, and the balance of tart going to sweet is interesting. Oddly I find it a bit salty as well... ? ... and I see that it's listed on Beer Advocate as a Gose beer, but that's not on the label, nor is salt listed as a "secret ingredient"... but of course, it is (I checked their website). So now it all makes sense. Well that's great. Personally I find the salt a bit strong, but that's up to the brewer to decide. It's curious, charming, and ultimately, refreshing and enjoyable. It's not the best gose bier I've had, but I'm impressed and I'll have to try seek out and sample more beers from them.

Slightly opaque but a neat hue to this beer. Deep brass green with lemon edges, a nice little amount of view shows off the carbonation nicely. Head is fleeting at about three fingers, even pinhead bubbled and falls easily to a simple puck.

Palate comes real nicely. Matching dough bread sweetness, mild salinity a bit and kind of grassy notes in the mid palate. Palate feel is a bit wet though, but flavors still manage to be captured. Big on the dough on the finish, but not so much chewy and popping texture. Little bit of lemon and flat soda on the front and mid palate as well.

A - The hazy pale straw yellow beer struggles to retain it's fluffy white head beyond the halo of loose bubbles it disintegrates but it comes as no surprise with lactobacillus, a souring agent, at the helm.

S - The "secret ingredient", coriander, along with salty notes, gives the nose a nice spicy bite but doesn't draw as much attention as it's other "secret" friend, Lactobacillus; the reason for the slightly funky and deliciously tart aroma. Soft wheat and simple pale malt comprise a gentle base for the unique funk to spring off of.

T - Almost like a slightly soured witbier, Troublesome has a prolific, tasty wheat profile with delicate coriander spice, which imparts a touch of lemony citrus, and slight saltiness on the finish.

M - Carbonation dances on the tongue but this wheat beer is incredibly smooth with delicate tartness that's overcome by gentle lingering saltiness and coriander spice for a refreshing, thirst-quenching finish.

O - If it weren't for the tart and acidic addition of lactobacillus, Troublesome would be very witbier-esque as it's bountiful with soft wheat and coriander spice but this German-style Gose makes for an incredibly easy drinking, crisp and refreshing brew!

Pours a hay color, hazy with a short fizzy head with limited retention but with a bit of lacing. Nice wheat, spice, coriander nose. The taste is light wheat, spice, mild sour notes, briney not salty, coriander and some sweet malt. The mouthfeel is nice and light with lively carbonation and clean, crisp finish. This is a really nice version of the style and unsure why it's not rated higher.

Troublesome in that wheat beers want to be "Wheat", and that sour beers want to be "Sour", and that spiced beers want to be "Spiced". But it doesn't come so easily as this revisit to a historic style of beer might seem avant garde to the uninitiated imbiber, but to those in the know of Gose understands its spicy, wheaty and sour ways.

With the delivery of the pour, its hazy canary-yellow glows with supple diffusion as light captures hues of gold and straw. Shedding a creamy sheet of foam, the ale trails with dissected necklaces of lace.

Its tangy, citrusy and bready aromas come with notions of sea brine, cork-like must and sweat. Enticing with an earthen scent of weathered woods, perhaps of attic and basement- a scent of dried lime, lemon and orange peels all float above a taste of sugar and shortcake to suggest the scent of "warheads" candy.

Its taste is much more firmly rooted in ale character as its sweetness is of light bread, sugar cookie and confectioners sweetness. But that lavish party is cut short as the middle opens with citursy tartness, fading bread, and a nod to iron and plaster in its tangy finish.

Semi-dry in its mouthfeel, its early creaminess is bready, lofty and lightened. But as the bubbles dissolve on the palate, a dry tartness takes hold- leading to slight warmth, acidic twang and soft powdery astringency.

Off Color's revival of Gose is a discovery of taste and the mind and the palate is transported to a time that's perhaps unimaginable. Yet this beer exists in all its wheaty, sour and minerally demeanor!

This beer is troublesome in that it is neither sour nor salty. Had this been classified as a wit beer, it would probably get better scores but this has to be the worst gose I have ever had. It has nice carbonation, I will give it that. But only that.

Taste is orange, coriander, and lemon. I do not get the saltiness that I typically associate with the style despite a bit of mineral taste. Worth a try, but there are others that I prefer in the style.